It is in numberless instances happier to have a false opinion which we believe true, than a true one of which we doubt.

We are oftener deceived by being told some truth than no truth.

It is so much in the nature of men to overreach and deceive one another, that their very sports and plays are founded on that principle.

The mind's eye is perhaps no better fitted for the full radiance of truth, than is the body's for that of the sun.

Man is the only creature endowed with the power of laughter; is he not also the only one that deserves to be laughed at?

No fruit has a more precise marked period of maturity, than love; if neglected to be gathered at that time, it will certainly fall to the ground and die away.

Though beauty is, with the most apt similitude, I had almost said with the most literal truth, called a flower that fades and dies almost in the very moment of its maturity; yet there is, methinks, a kind of beauty which lives even to old age; a beauty that is not in the features, but, if I may be allowed the expression, shines through them. As it is not merely corporeal it is not the object of mere sense, nor is it to be discovered but by persons of true taste and refined sentiment.